Lake Arts Project

A non-profit organization demonstrating how art is an essential part of life.

Alumni of the Year at CYPB

From the Central PA Youth Ballet website, the AOTY Campaign is a 10-week campaign to benefit their mission to inspire, educate and enrich lives through classical ballet. Each campaign includes "candidates" — CPYB alumni who are nominated to participate in fundraising meant to strengthen founding artistic director Marcia Dale Weary's vision of changing lives through dance.

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All gifts to the AOTY Campaign are restricted to the CPYB Changing Lives Scholarship Fund.

How does the campaign work? For 10 weeks, each candidate will fundraise on behalf of CPYB. We have provided them with support materials such as a customizable online donation page. However, each candidate's campaign is their very own! At the end of 10 weeks, each candidate will be uniquely honored at An Evening at the Barre to celebrate their accomplishments as a team. The candidate who achieves the greatest impact on the mission (raises the most money) will be named "Alumni of the Year."

From the Central PA Youth Ballet website, the AOTY Campaign is a 10-week campaign to benefit their mission to inspire, educate and enrich lives through classical ballet. Each campaign includes "candidates" — CPYB alumni who are nominated to participate in fundraising meant to strengthen founding artistic director Marcia Dale Weary's vision of changing lives through dance.

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All gifts to the AOTY Campaign are restricted to the CPYB Changing Lives Scholarship Fund.

How does the campaign work? For 10 weeks, each candidate will fundraise on behalf of CPYB. We have provided them with support materials such as a customizable online donation page. However, each candidate's campaign is their very own! At the end of 10 weeks, each candidate will be uniquely honored at An Evening at the Barre to celebrate their accomplishments as a team. The candidate who achieves the greatest impact on the mission (raises the most money) will be named "Alumni of the Year."

I'm so proud to be a part of the CPYB family! I cherish those very special years I spent at the Barn, the Pitt St studio, Mathers and the Hershey Theater. My time with Marcia, Melinda, Barbara Weisberger and Richard Cook not only gave me a top notch dance education, it also prepared me for my professional career and gave me a great gift of lifelong friendships, mentors, and memories that have guided me througout my life in making some of my most important decisions. CPYB artistic director/founder, Marcia Dale Weary, is one incredible person, whose passionate dream of creating a safe haven for children to choose a life filled with art and beauty, has had a profound impact on me, as it has for SO MANY others.

Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB) is a celebrated leader in the world of classical ballet. Embracing an attitude of lifelong learning more than 59 years ago, Founding Artistic Director Marcia Dale Weary envisioned a school where children have the opportunity to receive exceptional ballet training. Today CPYB is the nation's preeminent school of classical ballet with an international reputation for training young men and women.

From Jennifer Miller . . .

From Jennifer Miller . . .

I'm so proud to be a part of the CPYB family! I cherish those very special years I spent at the Barn, the Pitt St studio, Mathers and the Hershey Theater. My time with Marcia, Melinda, Barbara Weisberger and Richard Cook not only gave me a top notch dance education, it also prepared me for my professional career and gave me a great gift of lifelong friendships, mentors, and memories that have guided me througout my life in making some of my most important decisions. CPYB artistic director/founder, Marcia Dale Weary, is one incredible person, whose passionate dream of creating a safe haven for children to choose a life filled with art and beauty, has had a profound impact on me, as it has for SO MANY others.

Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB) is a celebrated leader in the world of classical ballet. Embracing an attitude of lifelong learning more than 59 years ago, Founding Artistic Director Marcia Dale Weary envisioned a school where children have the opportunity to receive exceptional ballet training. Today CPYB is the nation's preeminent school of classical ballet with an international reputation for training young men and women.

Jennifer's Comments

Q: How did your interest in ballet begin? When did this lead you to CPYB?

As a young child, my grandmother played the piano, while I sat on her lap. That quickly graduated to my dancing along to her music. My parents took me to see a handful of shows at a young age, as well. Some of those shows were CPYB's Swan Lake (danced by Margaret Garrett and Eddie Myers), La Fille Mal Gardee (my favorite to this day, danced by Suzanne Kovacs and Gregory Russell), Sleeping Beauty (danced by Deborah Wingert and Michael Owen) and, of course, the Nutcracker. I was hooked! I attended two small schools close to home before my Lancaster teacher, Sheila Audet, recommended I attend CPYB. I started there in the fall of 1979 in level 1B in Studio B. I'm forever grateful to my parents who lovingly made the daily drive from Elizabethtown to Carlisle for the 9 years that followed.

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Q: Do you have a special memory about Marcia that you would like to share?

Her hands.... I can always picture the way she holds her hands while talking about port de bras. For me, Marcia beautifully demonstrates the essence of “dancing with feeling” when she talks about the arms moving from 1st to 2nd position.

My strongest memories of Marcia have to do with the way she made me feel. Marcia has a special gift for making her students feel loved and pushed at the same time. I remember the feeling of being in her classes very clearly. I remember feeling a great sense of expectation from her, but I enjoyed it so much ... It's still a bit of a mystery to me. I've now witnessed my own daughter attend a beginning level class at CPYB, be pushed to focus for 2 hours at a very young age, come out exhausted, and delightfully come back the next day to do it all over again.

Another wonderful memory is while taking class in Studio C in the Fall. Marcia, who would be rehearsing Nutcracker in Studio B would poke her head in the room and call people into her rehearsal. The excitement of being called into that rehearsal was enormous!!

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Q: So, where are you now? What does a day in your life look like today?

Today, I live with my husband, Karl von Rabenau-also a former dancer, and our two daughters, Adelaide and Kadence, in Milwaukee, WI. I danced with Milwaukee Ballet for 16 years, starting at the apprentice level and rising to leading artist. I’m currently on the faculty of the Milwaukee Ballet School and Academy, and Steps Of Grace Ballet School. Karl and I are also co-directors of our own non-profit, Lake Arts Project, which designs collaborations between school age aspiring artists and professional artists of different disciplines. Our mission is to enrich arts education and provide an opportunity for our artists to perform.

Each summer we are lucky to have the opportunity to return to PA to teach for the CPYB summer course and Point Park University’s International Summer Dance, as well as visit family and friends.

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Q: What did you learn during your time at CPYB that you still use in your daily career/life?

The obvious answer is teaching method. I find that what and how Marcia taught me was so good on so many levels, that it continues to speak to each new generation. As I teach my students, I use these methods as a foundation. I also feel that growing up at the Barn has given me a sense of determination to obtain my personal goals, no matter how difficult, and a confidence in my knowledge of dance and teaching dance, and also to trust in my abilities that I’ve worked so hard and for so long to acquire.

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Q: What words of wisdom would you share with current students?

Enjoy these beautiful days full of pure dance! There are so many things that can get in the way of this passion if you allow them. No holding back, no regret, no jealousy....just you and your dancing, improving each day. Dance is such a fulfilling thing to do. If you are lucky enough to spend your life dancing, or having dance in your life in some form, you will lead a richer, lovelier life. Don’t get caught up on the things that will diminish your joy.